I have nothing to write anymore on this blog. I thought about a lot of things I would get out of my mind, but nothing is worth risking on a public internet. I am still looking for work and I am also babysitting a little 4 month old girls. She does nothing more than smiles at me when I am in a bad mood, and scream at me when I am out of her sight. I have been babysitting my daughter for more than half a year now. I literally have no income. Being out of school this long without a job makes me wonder if I should consider going for a master or change career. It is easier to have a job and money so no one can say worthless things to you.

2011's deadly tornadoes killed hundreds in the USApril 28, 2011, 10:07 am
It's a scary thing to think about. This year is the most deadly year ever cause by natural disaster. Japan was hit by continuous earthquake and the USA is hit by powerful tornadoes in large scale. THe weather pattern has definitely changed.

Researchers have fingered a common critter—the armadillo—as the likely source
of leprosy among some Americans who contracted the rare disease in the U.S.

A new study links exposure to wild armadillos and some
cases of leprosy in the south.

Using genetic sequencing, the researchers found that infected armadillos
captured in five southern states had the same strain of Mycobacterium leprae,
the agent that causes leprosy, as that found in some patients from southern
states diagnosed with the disease.

"The strains are genetically identical," said Richard Truman, a researcher in
the National Hansen's Disease Program, a federally funded treatment program for
leprosy, and the lead author of the study. "That provides a clear biological
link between the infection that occurs in human beings and those that occur in
animals."

Dr. Truman headed an international team of researchers who determined the
strain was different from any others associated with leprosy infections
elsewhere in the world, adding validity to the armadillo link.

Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases, said the finding was the result of "a very neat, ingenious type of
molecular fingerprinting," and that it "is essentially proof" that contact with
armadillos caused the infection in people with the same strain.

Dr. Fauci wasn't involved with the study, but NIAID was a sponsor of the
research. The study is being published Thursday in the New England Journal of
Medicine.

Leprosy is rare in the U.S., with fewer than 250 new cases reported each
year, most of them acquired overseas. But in one-third of cases, patients
weren't out of the country or couldn't recall contact with another infected
person, leaving researchers uncertain of the source of the bacterium.

Armadillos are the only non-human animals known to harbor the infection, and
in some cases in recent years doctors have suspected the odd-looking animals,
which appear cloaked in a suit of armor. The study is the first to use advanced
sequencing technology to investigate the link.

1970s Armadillos are found to be uniquely susceptible to
infection with Mycobacterium leprae, making them a staple of animal studies of
leprosy.

1980s-2000s Several small studies suggest that contact with
wild armadillos is a risk factor for acquiring leprosy.

Source: National Hansen's Disease Program; New England Journal of
Medicine

Researchers said that despite the findings, the risk of acquiring the
infection from armadillos was exceptionally low. "It's not that we're expecting
a real public-health threat with leprosy," Dr. Fauci said.

The value of the study is that it could prompt doctors encountering patients
with unexplained skin lesions to ask whether they have handled armadillos.

"Leprosy is an eminently treatable disease if you recognize it early on," Dr.
Fauci said.

The most likely way people might acquire the infection would be through
contact with blood or uncooked flesh from the armadillo, according to James L.
Krahenbuhl, director of the National Hansen's Disease Program. "The bacteria are
not highly invasive and require a cut or scratch to cross the skin barrier," he
said. Leprosy is also known as Hansen's disease.

Armadillos are commonplace in the south, having adapted much like squirrels
to urban and suburban environments. People who hunt the animals or pick up
armadillos killed on the road, for instance, could be at risk.

A skin rash is usually the first sign of leprosy, accompanied by a loss of
sensation caused by involvement of nerves in and just under the skin, said Dr.
Krahenbuhl. Untreated, that loss can progress to severe nerve damage, and
paralysis and disfigurement of fingers and toes. Contrary to myth and movie
portrayals, leprosy doesn't cause limbs to rot or fall off.

U.S. patients are typically treated with a three-drug antibiotic regimen that
kills the bacteria almost immediately. But patients are prescribed the drugs for
up to two years to minimize chances a drug-resistant strain could develop. Some
3,600 Americans are currently being treated, said Dr. Krahenbuhl.

In addition to the U.S. researchers, who were also based at Louisiana State
University, Baton Rouge, scientists from Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de
Lausanne, Switzerland, the Institut Pasteur in Paris and the Instituto de
Biomedicina, Caracas, Venezuela, participated in the study.

During the last upgrade, the sever has gone horribly wrong. The program no longer keeps track of member login, and member cannot post or stay online. I was going to gix the problem sooner, but I had to wait for school to finish first. Since Christmas break, I have been working on modifying the scrípt to improve performance. No matter what I did, XOOPS won't work properly. Then I found out that the server, the program, and XOOPS are not on the same page and its not easy to make them work together. Each time XOOPS went down, it took a lot of time to fix, therefore I decided to run Nplaim Hlub on a custom scrípt which I have been working on. Although it is not a perfect scrípt, it is easier to fix when there is error.

So, from here on, Nplaim Hlub will look very different from the last 10 years, but you will get used to the new layout.

I managed to import every members and the associated information to the new database. I hope nobody is missing. If anyone is missing, please register again and forgive me.

There are many pictures on the old NH site that had been imported to the new one. I am going to start transferring the ownership to the rightful owner so the owner can take control of the photos and everything else that the owner owns.

Well, if you spot any error or anything that is not working right, please do report the error to me.